NOTE: We strongly encourage
teams to play in the age group they are playing in the Spring/Summer 2018 to
prepare them for that age group.

The softball "year"
for USSSA runs from August 1 to July 31. That means that tournaments
scheduled after August 1 are considered 2018 events and in order to participate
in them a team must be registered for 2018. In short, all the teams that
were created and all rosters that were submitted for the 2017 season expired
on July 31, 2017.

Under the USSSA
system (ISTS), a manager establishes a one-time online account, and then creates teams
under that account from year to year. On or shortly after July 1 managers can create their 2018 team, particularly if they plan on playing any USSSA
tournaments in August through December. Otherwise, they can certainly
wait until next year to create their team.

When a manager
creates a 2018 team, he/she will then need to enter their roster online just as
they did for 2017. One thing that makes entering your
roster easier the second time around is that any player that previously played
on a team that the manager has under their account will already be in the
system. If the manager wants to retain that player for 2018 (or at least
the fall of 2017) then all he/she has to do is highlight the player under the
“Add Former Player” section and hit the button.

Now, here’s the
catch. The age cut off is still based on the calendar/sanction year, however the
age eligibility for 2018 teams will change beginning August 1, 2017. The
best way to explain this is with an example. Let’s say we have a team that
played 14U in 2017. They have a mix of players born in 2002 (roster 14
year olds) and 2003 (roster 13 year olds). If they want to keep playing
14U in the fall of 2017 with players born in 2002 they will not be able
to create a 2018 14U team because all 2002 players are now considered roster 15
year olds. What the manager needs to do in this situation is to create their
2018 team as a 15U team. That way he/she can keep all the 2002 players for the
fall. Tournament-wise we are going to combine all 14U and 15U teams in the fall
because that’s the group that played against one another in the spring and
summer.NOTE: No metal cleats in
13U in the Fall 2017.

A 14U team was used
in the above example, but the same applies to the 8U, 10U and 12U as well. In
other words, an 8U manager with 2008 players should create a 9U
team (still playing under coach-pitch rules), a 10U manager with 2006 players should create an
11U team and a 12U
manager with 2004 players should create a 13U team. Then come tournament
time this fall we will combine the 8U and 9U teams (playing under
8U coach-pitch
rules), combine the 10U and 11U teams (playing under
10U rules--pitching
distance = 35 ft, 11-inch ball), and combine the 12U and 13U teams (playing under
12U rules--pitching distance = 40 ft, NO METAL CLEATS). 16U
and 18U is a slightly different story because
USSSA doesn’t have a 17U division or 19U division. A manager with 2000 players
will have to register as an 18U team. Most of the time that won’t matter because
in the fall we often combine 16U and 18U age brackets anyway. In cases where we
don’t, we’ll simply open up the tournament to 18U teams. If you have a player
who is currently 18 years old but turns 19 before December 31st, the online
system will not accept her. Contact your tournament director for instructions. Below is an outline of
age eligibility per age group according to a player’s birth year.

Age
Eligibility According to Birth Year for the 2018 Season (which begins
August 1, 2017)

AGE

BIRTH
DATE

8U

2009 - 2012

9U

2008 - 2011

10U

2007 - 2010

11U

2006 - 2009

12U

2005 - 2008

13U

2004 - 2007

14U

2003 - 2006

15U

2002 - 2005

16U

2001 - 2004

18U

1999 - 2003

If a manager creates
an odd year team for the fall (9U, 11U, 13U or 15U), then come next spring they have
three options:

If they really want
to play next spring as a one year younger team, then they should email the
state director to have them reclassified as such after the fall season is
finished and after they’ve deleted their older players. For example,
let’s say a 14U team in 2017 decides they want to play out the rest of the
fall with their current players which include 2002 girls. They would
register as a 15U in the fall. However, if in the next calendar year
they want to be a 14U team again, then the manager would delete any 2002 girls
from the roster and call/email the office requesting that they be reclassified
to 14U team.

If they want to
play next spring as a one year older team, then they would have to let our
office know that as well. Following the above example, if a team
registers as a 15U team in the fall, but then next spring wants to pick up
players born in 2001, then we would have to reclassify them as 16U.

They can do nothing
and just stay as an 9U, 11U, 13U or 15U team for the spring/summer of 2018.

There are two other
side issues to all of this.

Insurance. The insurance
situation changes depending on whether the team purchased their insurance from
USSSA or from another association.

If a team has USSSA
insurance: Teams that
purchased USSSA had two options when they bought it – to have coverage run
through 7/31/17 or have it run through 12/31/17. If they purchased the
latter policy then they’re fine through the fall. If they purchased it to
expire on 7/31/17 then they’ll need to purchase another policy that runs from
8/1/17 to 12/31/17, which USSSA offers at half price because of the shortened
term. Or they can purchase a full “year” policy that runs from 8/1/17 to
7/31/18 which will cover them through the 2018 registration period.

If a team does not
have USSSA insurance: Most
non-USSSA policies expire on December 31. If a team has such a policy then
it will remain in effect throughout the fall provided that the team is
essentially the same. If a 12U team becomes a 13U team in the fall, but
otherwise carries the same team name, then their 2017 coverage will apply
provided any newly added players are included on the team’s roster. However, if the team name completely changes then a new policy would be
required.

Player
Pickup Policy.
We are reviewing the Player
Pickup Policy at the Florida USSSA Fastpitch State Meeting. More details to come.

Other Roster Notes

As stated above, Florida USSSA Fastpitch allows open rosters until
mid-June. A player may play on several teams before that as long as she is not
actively playing for two USSSA teams playing tournaments the same weekend.
Sometime in mid-June, I
will lock all rosters, then all player moves from one team to
another must be approved by the State Director.

Hopefully this answers any questions that managers and players
have regarding the USSSA softball “year.”